Doctor Crawford looked at the speaker. In the partially darkened room, Eve's strange eyes glittered with an uncanny light. Her face was pale, and her red hair like a flame aureole. She took a slow step nearer to the doctor, and he recoiled, as from a vampire. "You are afraid!" she said, and her tone was exultant. "Do not be afraid,--the phantasms will not hurt you if you do your duty. Unless you do your duty----" she stretched her hand toward him, and again he drew away, "the phantasms will haunt you--_haunt_ you--_haunt you_!" Her voice fell to the merest whisper, but it thrilled through the room like a clarion note to the shocked ears of the listening man. Against his will her eyes held his; against his will, without his volition, he whispered, "What is my duty?" "To declare,--to declare in accordance with your own conviction, in proof of your own belief,--that these two deaths were the direct result of a supernatural power. What power, you know not, but you do know--remember, you _do_ know, that no mortal hand brought the tragedy about, either the hands of the victims themselves or of any one else." Fascinated, frightened, Crawford stared at this strange woman. He had never before encountered such a face, such a sinuous, serpentine form, a personality that seemed to sway his very being, that seemed to dominate and control his whole will power, his whole brain power. "Don't misunderstand me," Eve went on, "don't think for a moment, I am advising you wrongly, or with intent to deceive. Only, I see you know nothing of occult phenomena, and moreover, you are even ignorant of your own ignorance of them. Therefore, seeing, too, your quick appreciation and perceptive faculty, I warn you not to ignore or forget the fact that these things exist, that unseen powers hold sway over us all, and they _must_ be reckoned with." The flattery was subtle. More than the words, Eve's glance implied a keen apprehension on the part of the doctor, which, as he didn't possess it, seemed a desirable thing to him, and he gladly assumed that he had it. "And now," Eve said, as they left the room, "do you want to go to the other room--the Room with the Tassels?" "No--please, not now," and Crawford shuddered, for he had heard much of that room. Also, he was desirous of getting back to more normal associates than this strange being, and he resolved to leave the examination of the other victim until the return of his fellow physician, who at least was practical, and an unbeliever in spooks. Shaken by the whole episode, Doctor Crawford concealed his disquiet by a manner even more slow and deliberate than usual. He said no word of Gifford Bruce, but announced his desire to ask a few general questions concerning practical matters. "Where is your home, Mr. Landon?" he inquired, and then asked the same question of each.